Netflix Needs to Acquire the Jack-of-All-Trades

𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗳𝗹𝗶𝘅 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗸-𝗼𝗳-𝗔𝗹𝗹-𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀 Netflix Games finally has a coherent strategy—hallelujah! Yet, despite this clarity, it’s missing the most obvious acquisition opportunity since Sony scooped up Insomniac Games: Jackbox Games.

Netflix pushes games to subscribers via a row within its mobile app, directing users to separate App Store pages for download. The strategy was flawed from the start, as 70%+ of Netflix consumption happens on TVs. The Games group desperately sought awareness, resorting to 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 reading: “Wait, Netflix has Games?” A modest improvement, but still failing to meet subscribers where they are—TV.

While Netflix had an AAA FPS studio, it was dubious that it could ever solve distribution or input challenges. Netflix’s sprawling device ecosystem and lack of a dedicated controller raised doubts from day 1—unless another ill-fated game streaming service was planned (RIP OnLive, Stadia, GameFly, and xCloud).

Enter Jackbox Games: a family-friendly(ish), party game experience with minimal hardware needs, scaling across platforms on a single code base, using phones as primary input. It’s difficult to overstate how perfectly Jackbox aligns with Netflix Games’ strategy and platform challenges. It could seamlessly scale across Netflix’s platforms, leveraging technology from Netflix’s shuttered interactive TV division. It’s easy to imagine Jackbox in its own row on Netflix’s TV app. Beyond technical and genre fit, Jackbox would help Netflix revive a broader social vision.

Game makers tout social features for long-run retention, yet the Netflix platform abandoned them. Friends lists, queues, and group watching died nearly a decade ago, likely killed by tech PMs A/B-testing features into oblivion. However, the underlying issue is a lack of visionary ambition, not social itself. Netflix Games should advocate a richer, socially interactive platform, especially with Disney+ nipping at its heels.

Netflix Games is brimming with exceptional talent; however, corporate politics have hampered the division’s ability to form its own identity. Netflix leadership seems intent on repeating the mistakes of Google, Facebook, and Apple by failing to respect the medium of games. While Amazon Games isn’t a smash success, its relative success is a function of loosening the cultural reins and creating an internal corporate annex, something Netflix should mirror.

Instead of fostering innovation, Netflix Games opted for the safe, uninspiring route of creating a content library. This strategy fundamentally misunderstands how players consume games. It’s consistent with the passive content consumption model Netflix was built on—not the interactive, social-driven medium games inherently are. For Netflix Games to thrive, leadership must embrace gaming’s uniqueness rather than treating it as merely another category in its streaming catalog. Jackbox Games is the next best step.